The first misfortune of my married life, came in the person of Margaret
Melville. She burst into the boudoir one morning like a young tornado,
seizing me in her strong arms, and giving me a shower of kisses, before
I had time to recover from my astonishment.
Ernest and myself were seated side by side by the escritoire. He was
reading,--I was writing to Edith, little dreaming of the interruption at
hand.
"My dear creature," she exclaimed, with one of her inimitable ringing
laughs, "how _do_ you _do_? You didn't think of seeing me, I know you
didn't. Where did I come from? I dropped down from the upper
regions,--you do not believe that. Well, I came with a party of friends,
who wanted me to keep them alive. They are stopping at the Astor House.
By the way, my trunks are there,--you may send for them as soon as you
please. (Her trunks! she had come for a long visit, then!) There is my
bonnet, mantilla, and gloves,--here _I_ am, body and soul,--what a
glorious lounge,--good old Cr[oe]sus, what a palace you are in,--I never
saw any thing so magnificent! Why, this is worth getting married for! If
I ever marry, it shall be to a rich man, and one who will let me do just
as I please, too."
Ernest in vain endeavored to conceal his vexation at this unexpected
innovation on the elegant quietude and romantic seclusion of our home.
His countenance expressed it but too plainly, and Margaret, careless as
she was, must have observed it. It did not appear to disconcert her,
however. She had not waited for an invitation,--she did not trouble
herself about a welcome. She had come for her own amusement, and
provided that was secured, she cared not for our gratification.
I can hardly explain my own feelings. I always dreaded coming in contact
with her rudeness; there was no sympathy in our natures, and yet I
experienced a sensation of relief while listening to her bubbling and
effervescent nonsense. My mind had been kept on so high a tone, there
was a strain, a tension, of which I was hardly conscious till the
bowstring was slackened. Besides, she was associated with the
recollections of Grandison Place,--she was a young person of my own sex,
and she could talk to me of Mrs. Linwood, and Edith, and the friends of
my rural life. So I tried to become reconciled to the visitation, and to
do the honors of a hostess with as good a grace as possible.
Ernest took refuge in the library from her wild rattling, and then she
poured into my ear the idle gossip she had heard the evening before.
"It never will do," she cried, catching a pair of scissors from my
work-box, and twirling them on the ends of her fingers at the imminent
risk of their flying into my eyes,--"you must put a stop to this Darby
and Joan way of living,--you will be the byword of the fashionable
world,--I heard several gentlemen talking about you last night. They
said your husband was so exclusive and jealous he would not let the sun
look upon you if he could help it,--that he had the house lighted
through the roof, so that no one could peep at you through the windows.
Oh! I cannot repeat half the ridiculous things they said, but I am sure
your ears must have burned from the compliments they paid you, at least
those who have had the good-luck to catch a glimpse of your face. They
all agreed that Ernest was a frightful ogre, who ought to be put in a
boiling cauldron, for immuring you so closely,--I am going to tell him
so."
"Don't, Margaret, don't! If you have any regard for my feelings, don't,
I entreat you, ever repeat one word of this unmeaning gossip to him. He
is so peculiarly sensitive, he would shrink still more from social
intercourse. What a shame it is to talk of him in this manner. I am sure
I have as much liberty as I wish. He is ready to gratify every desire of
my heart He has made me the happiest of human beings."
"Oh! I know all that, of course. Who would not be happy in such a palace
as this?"
"It is not the splendor with which he has surrounded me," I answered,
gravely, "but the love which is my earthly Providence, which constitutes
my felicity. You may tell these _busy idlers_, who are so interested in
my domestic happiness, that I thank my husband for excluding me from
companions so inferior to himself,--so incapable of appreciating the
purity and elevation of his character."
"Well, my precious soul, don't be angry with them. You are a jewel of a
wife, and I dare say he is a diamond of a husband; but you cannot stop
peoples' tongues. They _will_ talk when folks set themselves up as
exclusives. But let me tell you one thing, my pretty creature!--I am not
going to be shut up in a cage while I am here, I assure you. I am
determined to see all the lions; go to all fashionable places of
amusement, all attractive exhibitions, theatres, concerts, panoramas,
every thing that promises the least particle of enjoyment. I shall
parade Broadway, frequent Stewart's marble palace, and make myself the
belle of the city. And you are to go with me, my dear,--for am I not
your guest, and are you not bound to minister to my gratification? As
for your ogre, he may go or stay, just as he pleases. There will be
plenty who will be glad enough to take his place."
I did not expect that she would have the audacity to say this to Ernest;
but she did. I had never asked him to take me to places of public
amusement, because I knew he did not wish it. Sometimes, when I saw in
the morning papers that a celebrated actor was to appear in a fine
drama, my heart throbbed with momentary desire, and my lips opened to
express it. But delicacy and pride always restrained its expression. I
waited for him to say,--
"Gabriella, would you like to go?"
The morning after her arrival she ransacked the papers, and fastening on
the column devoted to amusements, read its contents aloud, to the
evident annoyance of Ernest.
"Niblo's Garden, the inimitable Ravels--_La Fête champétre_,--dancing on
the tight-rope, etc. Yes, that's it. We will go there to-night,
Gabriella. I have been dying to see the Ravels. Cousin Ernest,--you did
not know that you were my cousin, did you?--but you are. Our mothers
have been climbing the genealogical tree, and discovered our collateral
branches. Cousin Ernest, go and get us tickets before the best seats are
secured. What an unpromising countenance! Never mind. Mr. Harland said
he would be only too happy to attend Gabriella and myself to any place
of amusement or party of pleasure. You are not obliged to go, unless you
choose. Is he, Gabriella?"
"I certainly should not think of going without him," I answered, vexed
to discover how much I really wished to go.
"But you wish to go,--you know you do. Poor, dear little soul! You have
never been anywhere,--you have seen nothing,--you live as close and
demure as a church mouse,--while this man-monster, who has nothing in
the universe to do, from morning till night, but wait upon you and
contribute to your gratification, keeps you at home, like a bird in a
cage, just to look at and admire. It is too selfish. If _you_ will not
tell him so, _I_ will. He shall hear the truth from somebody."
"Margaret!" I said, frightened at the pale anger of Ernest's
countenance.
"You dare not look me in the face and say that you do not wish to go,
Gabriella? You know you dare not."
"I desire nothing contrary to my husband's wishes."
"You are a little simpleton, then,--and I don't care what people say. It
is a sin to encourage him in such selfishness and despotism."
She laughed, but her lips curled with scorn.
Ernest took up a pearl paper-cutter from the table, and bent it, till it
broke like glass in his fingers. He did not know what he was doing.
Madge only laughed the louder. She enjoyed his anger and my trepidation.
"A pretty thing to make a scene of!" she exclaimed. "Here I come all the
way from Boston to make you a visit,--expecting you would do every thing
to make me happy, as other folks do, when friends visit them. I propose
a quiet, respectable amusement, in my own frank, go-ahead way,--and
lo!--my lord frowns, and my lady trembles, and both, occupied in
watching each other's emotions, forget they have a guest to entertain,
as well as a friend to gratify."
"You might wait till I have refused to accompany you, Miss Melville,"
said Ernest, in a cold, calm voice. "You know me incapable of such
rudeness. But I cannot allow even a lady to make such unpardonable
allusions to my domestic feelings and conduct. If a man cannot find a
sanctuary from insult in his own home, he may well bar his doors against
intrusion, and if he has the spirit of a man, he will."
"She is only jesting," said I, with a beseeching glance. "You know Madge
of old,--she never says any thing she really thinks. How can you be
excited by any remarks of hers?"
"Cousin Ernest," cried Madge, while the _laughing devil_ in her great
black eyes tried to shrink into a hiding-place, "have you not manliness
to forgive me, when the rash humor which my mother gave me makes me
forgetful?"
She held out her hand with an ardent desire for reconciliation. She
found she had a spirit to contend with, stronger than she imagined; and
for the moment she was subdued.
"Not your mother, Margaret," replied Ernest, taking the offered hand
with a better grace than I anticipated. "She is gentle and womanly, like
my own. I know not whence you derived your wickedness."
"It is all original. I claim the sole credit of it. Father and mother
both saints. I am a moral tangent, flying off between them. Well, we are
friends again; are we not?"
"We are at peace," he answered. "You know the conditions, now; and I
trust will respect them."
"We are all going to Niblo's," she cried eagerly; "that is one
condition."
"Certainly," he answered; and he could not help smiling at the
adroitness with which she changed positions with him.
"Will you really like to go, Gabriella?" he asked, turning to me; and
his countenance beamed with all its wonted tenderness.
"Oh, yes, indeed I will. I am sure it will be delightful."
"And have you ever desired to partake of pleasures, without telling me
of your wishes?"
"I do not know that I can call the transient emotion I have felt, a
desire," I answered; blushing that I had ever cherished thoughts which I
was unwilling to disclose. "I believe curiosity is natural to youth and
inexperience."
"Perfect love casteth out fear, Gabriella. You must promise to tell me
every wish of your heart; and be assured, if consistent with reason, it
shall be gratified."
Delighted at so pleasant a termination to so inauspicious a beginning, I
looked forward to the evening's entertainment with bright and elastic
spirits. Once, as my eye rested on the fragments of pearl, I sighed to
think how easily the pearls of sensibility, as well as all the frail and
delicate treasures of life, might be crushed by the hand of passion.